Sunbonnet Duck and Other Easter Musings

Here it is, almost Easter, and I realized I have many things that are not done. Fortunately, none of it is anything that will cause the world to end. Just little things. For instance, I only got two of those darned Martha Stewart eggs done, which means I have a basket full of naked styrofoam eggs and a pile of pretty pastel perle cotton thread. Maybe I'll just be done really, really early for next year. Or not.

A couple of years ago, my quilt guild selected as its annual challenge a crib quilt using 30s fabrics. My apologies in advance to those of you who love 30s fabrics and patterns, but we're all different and they just don't appeal much to me--I think it's because I'm not fond of pastels and I have a hard time with all the medium value fabrics. But being a good guild member and kind of liking a challenge, I decided to participate. Now I have to tell you that I also don't care much for Sunbonnet Sues. Sorry, once again, because I know this gal is popular, but she's just too darn cute for me. Anyway, after thinking about the challenge for a bit, I had this vision of a Sunbonnet Duck. In my mind, it looked kind of like a duck, kind of like Sunbonnet Sue, and kind of like the Keep on Truckin guy. With the quilt show in October, I finally got going in August; in September we went on vacation and I took all my applique pieces with me to work on during our drive through Oregon. Then, on vacation, I got the flu. The really, really bad flu where you can't do a thing--you can barely manage to breathe. So that didn't get done either. Of course, this wasn't a project I was trying to complete for this Easter, so the lack of completion hasn't made me feel like a complete slacker--been there, done that already with this particular project. But I think the ducks remind me of Easter, and I thought you might like to see them (because we all like eye candy, right?!). The blocks are just stuck up on my design wall and the photo's a little dark because I took the picture at night. I want to make two more ducks and set them inside maybe an oval of appliqued flowers and bugs. Hopefully it will be a few more years before any grandkids come along, so I think I have a little time.

My online group was talking a little today about Easter traditions, and that got me thinking of a couple other things I didn't do this year. When the kids were living at home--even when they were teenagers--every year I'd boil between two and three dozen eggs and we'd spend the Friday before Easter decorating them. (My husband didn't really do any of the decorating. His main task was to eat them afterward.) The three of us are all somewhat creative, so we'd generally have a fun time trying to out do each other and arguing about whose egg was the best. Some of those eggs were pretty crazy--very few simply dyed eggs in this house.

And because I don't have a gazillion hard boiled eggs this year, I also won't be making the traditional but fairly gross post Easter meal my mom used to make. Tuna and chopped up hard boiled eggs in a white sauce served on toast. No, I won't inflict the recipe on you. It surprises me sometimes that I've actually made it a couple times myself since becoming an adult, but perhaps I was suffering from some passive-aggressive psychosis and wanted to punish my family. In any event, one of my friends said her family made the same thing but without the tuna, and her grown kids still call her every year to get the recipe. They had a little twist to their tradition though. Before fixing this meal (which was served as Easter breakfast), they would roll the eggs at one another in the driveway, smashing the shells. The winner was the egg that didn't break. How are these traditions borne, I wonder? It boggles the mind!

Well, I have one more day before Easter to see if I can get a few more things done. I still need to go to the grocery store and get whatever I need to make whatever kind of salad I decide I want to bring to Easter dinner. I obviously don't have this quite planned out yet, but I'm leaning toward a pasta salad. That's really the only "must do" on my list, because you know the world just MIGHT end if I don't show up at my mother-in-law's with a salad.

Enjoy the Easter weekend!